Kickstarter/Indigogo delivery | Canary

[dbane883]

Well after backing a project on Kickstarter over 1.5 years ago, finally received the item today.
Canary home security thingy. Built in camera, motion detector, etc etc.

Not sure if this is better than a Nest-like product, but I guess I'll find out. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

[droptopman]

Cool. Look forward to a review.

Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

[dbane883]

correction. it was an Indigogo project, not Kickstater.

 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/canary-the-first-smart-home-security-device-for-everyone

[highoeyazmuhudee]

i could have come up with a better slogan

 

is it an ip camera motion detector/siren type deal?

[dbane883]

yeah..  1080p camera, night vision, motion detector, temperature/humidity, air quality (?), microphone, 90+ db siren

[whoopy12]

Wow - comes with a '67 5513?! Best marketing I've seen yet

[dbane883]

Wow - comes with a '67 5513?! Best marketing I've seen yet

ha.  yes.. well worth the 1.5 year wait.

[tomhorn]

I would be interested to know more about the air quality monitoring.

[Ezio]

Wow should get one of those to try out but the Internet based cameras is just not safe to have to easy to hack sadly but could be fun just to get one for giggles

[dbane883]

Yeah. Having an Camera constantly connected to the World Wide Web does sound a bit invasive. I might just keep it at the office rather than at home. Will set it up tomorrow.

[bwhitesox]

Should be no problem if you set a complex password.

[dbane883]

Well I just set it up in my office.

Packaging is very Apple-like with a minimalist instruction manual:

Once the power is plugged in, iPhone connects to the unit with the supplied cable to link the user to the unit and network setup:

I would give it 5 stars for ease of set up. Really good job there.

The app is really the only way to change any settings on the device and is very well laid out for a UI perspective:

The built in camera shows "live" video feeds but it's actually lagging by about 6-7 seconds. When thee is no movement, resolution is ok. But if something is moving there is some jitter and pixelation. That will hopefully improve over time. Portrait video of live feed:

Landscape on iPhone 6+:

The temperature and humidity sensors are working, but looks like the air quality assessment takes a day or two:

I don't know if the combo of the Nest camera and smoke detector are better, but the Canary, as a brand new startup should give it a run for its money.

I've tried out the siren and it can be turned on remotely and is very very loud.

Was it worth the $250 (+$90 CDN duty/taxes)... Tough call. Probably not. But it's a fun toy for now. The camera can be disabled and there is an ability to record time lapse video to the cloud, but not sure I want to be stuck with a monthly fee.

Build quality is pretty good with its used of brush aluminum. One gripe is the circular light at the bottom. In a dark room, it will really be annoying by and be a glaring beacon of the intention is for it to be hidden in the background.

Overall, it works as promised which is more than I can say about other crowd funding projects.

[droptopman]

Nice, matches nicely with that ghost 5513.  After you have it a bit, like to hear more about it.

[Ayr]

Pretty cool actually. Some really cool ideas get floated around on KS and Indie, love seeing them actually come to market. Some nonsense on there too though